Power outages irk Peshawar villagers

PESHAWAR: A number of villages situated in the outskirts of the provincial capital have been facing 18 hours long power outages for the last several days.

The prolonged outages are being carried out despite federal government claims that electricity loadshedding had been brought to an end. Many consumers termed it a ploy to provoke the people against the federal and provincial governments now that the general election is some months away.

A large number of people in the provincial assembly constituencies PK-6, PK-7, PK-8, PK-9, PK-10 and PK-11 are furious for the last almost a month after suffering 16 hours long loadshedding imposed on them by the Pesco authorities.

The Pesco spokesman, however, said there is no loadshedding. "The government had recently claimed that loadshedding has been brought to an end. But we are facing 16 to 18 hour daily power cuts for the last many weeks.

“This has caused anger among the people against the federal and provincial governments as well as the Pesco authorities," Safeer Ahmad, a resident of PK-6 constituency said. Another consumer said that people are ready to take to the streets against the injustice that will only create problems for the government. He said that the power breakdowns are likely to create a law and order situation for the government in the coming days.

When the local office of Pesco is approached with complaints, they say it is being done to adjust losses due to power theft. In fact, there are many Pesco staff members who are the real culprits for supporting power theft as they receive monthlies as bribe from consumers.

“Pesco should not only take action against the power thieves but the corrupt elements within every sub-division who are earning huge amounts from power theft by industries, commercial outlets and domestic consumers," said another resident of suburban Peshawar.

Many consumers say if the power theft is the issue, Pesco and the police must go after the thieves. They argued that those paying their bills regularly should not suffer because of the incompetent officials and their poor policies to control the menace of power theft.

"Instead of encouraging those paying regular bills, the authorities are provoking them with overbilling and power cuts of up to 16 hours duration. This will only result in anger against the government," said a consumer.